The Public Value of GovTech Start-ups

Dasigno is a startup with expertise in digital government platforms and open innovation. Thus, the company has helped to develop new channels of citizen participation and interaction between territorial governments and their residents. Dasigno developed the platform Mi Colombia Digital—which allows to create and manage the country’s territorial websites—for Colombia’s communication and information technologies ministry. The platform has enabled the nation to escalate its territorial digital governance strategy, bringing together as many as 2,643 websites of local entities, with high usage rates by citizens and local governments.

The measurable costs and benefits of “Mi Colombia Digital” were analyzed. As noted in Table 1, the result of the estimate is a cost-benefit ratio of 150.8. This indicates that for every peso that the national government invested in Dasigno’s “Mi Colombia Digital” over five years, the state receives a return of 150 pesos, in terms of investment savings by the country’s territorial governments, as well as savings in publications at a federal level.

Table 1. “Mi Colombia Digital” Platform Cost-Benefit Ratio

  Source: Author

Datasketch, in turn, is a startup with expertise in data science and digital platforms, contributing to the possibility for government and civil society organizations to develop new platforms for data use, visualization and download in matters of public interest, such as corruption and the Colombian armed conflict. Monitor Ciudadano, a platform developed by Datasketch for Transparencia por Colombia, has made great strides with the help of the country’s telecommunications and technology ministry. This platform is today the main open and public data portal monitoring corruption in Colombia.

Monitor Ciudadano is estimated to have a cost-benefit ratio of 37.2, as shown in Table 2. This indicates that, taking only the quantifiable benefits in account, for each peso invested in the development of the platform through the partnership with Datasketch, TpC received a COL 37.00 return.

Table 2. “Monitor Ciudadano” Platform Cost-Benefit Ratio

Source: Author

In addition, the company developed the visualization platform for the Memory and Conflict Observatory, which allows citizens to access, query and analyze an array of databases, as well as view data on violence that occurred in the context of the Colombian armed conflict. In this case, the public value analysis carried out found that, for every peso invested in the development of the platform, the Historical Memory Center received 5.5 pesos in return due to the savings generated by investing in technology, as well as cleaning up and consolidating the databases, as seen in Table 3.

Table 3. OMC Platform Cost-Benefit Ratio

  Source: Author

These results conclude that the Colombian governments—both central and local—have generated significant public value by partnering with tech startups such as Dasigno and Datasketch for the creation and implementation of a series of digital solutions, including territorial websites that enable innovation and citizen participation, and public data analysis and visualization platforms. These partnerships have enabled the government to improve efficiency of public spending, avoiding duplication in the allocation of digital technology resources. Dasigno and Datasketch have contributed greatly to the achievement of these benefits, as they have brought not only their experience in digital solution development, but also their knowledge of modern innovation and development methodologies, as well as their focus on meeting the needs of government as a client, and of citizens as end users.

The successful development of the aforementioned platforms has also been possible thanks to the existence in Colombia of technically specialized government agencies focused on the digitalization of government, including the communications ministry’s Digital Governance Directorate and the various secretariats under various local governments.

However, in their work with the public sector Dasigno and Datasketch have found a few elements that have hindered development of solutions. A relevant barrier reported by these companies is the difficulty, as tech startups, to win government contracts. The public procurement regulatory and budgetary framework in Colombia must then rise to the task of adapting to facilitate access by such companies to the creation and implementation of digital transformation solutions based on innovation.

Lastly, the publication includes a few recommendations for effective promotion of such solutions in the countries of the region. These recommendations include:

1. Promoting greater understanding among governments of the region of the economic benefits of having GovTech entrepreneurship ecosystems,
2. Implementing initiatives for the diagnosis, understanding and monitoring of local GovTech entrepreneurship ecosystems,
3. Modernizing regulatory and institutional frameworks, as well as budgeting procedures governing public procurement to incorporate purchasing models that facilitate the connection between GovTech startups and the development of innovative solutions for governments,
4. Consolidating open government and open data policies and initiatives, both at the federal and local levels, and
5. Reinforcing education policies that help develop talent in areas related to this type of entrepreneurship.